The first ever batch of Lankan rubber industry PhDs, scientists and R&D personnel seeking latest international rubber know-how will fly out coming Sunday 25, thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
โMy Ministry is an implementing partner in Governmentโs Rubber Master Plan. These training opportunities are provided as part of this Master Planโ announced a pleased Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on 22 September at his Ministry in Colombo 3. Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the 25- member team (representing many companies and organisations) of Lankan rubber industry personnel consisting of scientists, PhDs and Research and Development (R&D) who will be taking flight coming Sunday 25 to pursue a hi-tech rubber industry training course at Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala, India โwell known in South Asia for its courses in plastic and rubber technologies.
โMy Ministry is an implementing partner in Governmentโs Rubber Master Plan. These training opportunities are provided as part of this Master Planโ said Minister Bathiudeen and added: โThough we use locally made raw rubber heavily for our industries, there is also a growing problem of lack of skilled technology knowledge in our rubber manufacturing sector. Realising the need to address this issue my Ministry, with Sri Lanka Plastic and Rubber Research Institute contacted Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala, India which is well-known in South Asia for plastic and rubber technologies and received a positive response to our request. This batch of 25 rubber R&D and scientists leaving for Kerala on 25 September is the result with my Ministryโs support. You are also the first team of Lankan scientist and Research and Development (R&D) personnel departing for high end rubber training in Cochin. We already started upgrading of skills in rubber manufacturing with latest technologies and sent two batches previously for international training but they were mostly for manufacturing operations training. There has been a strong demand by our rubber industry to take part in the latest batch from the time we announced it and more than 50 applications received for this training. We selected 25 of you from those. My Ministry is contributing almost Rs 1.5 million as part of your Cochin training costs.โ
โThis is Sri Lankaโs first ever advanced rubber industry team to go abroad for Hi-Tech training in the sectorโ said Ananda Caldera Executive Director of Global Rubber Industries Ltd and Chairman of Rubber Advisory Committee of Ministry of Industry and Commerce. โSri Lankaโs rubber products is the islandโs premier value addition manufacturing sector and we are also the worldโs largest supplier of solid tyres. The government is moving to make this sector a $3 Billion industry through its Rubber Industry Masterplan and members of this team will return to Sri Lanka with the latest tech know-how.โ
โWe are thankful to Industry and Commerce Ministry and Minister Bathiudeen for this initiativeโ said Dr Sisira Ranathunga, a General Manager of Elastomeric (a fully owned subsidiary of Stockholm listed HEXPOL A.B). โWe are to be trained in advanced rubber concepts such as synthetic rubber blends, EPDM blending, Finite Element Analysing, nano-tech applications in rubber industry, UV projections, testing using latest equipment such as DMA, DSC and FTIR, and rubber transfer and injection moulding techniquesโ added PhD Ranathunga.
Minister Bathiudeenโs Ministry is in charge of 12 projects from the total 25 projects in Governmentโs Rubber Master Plan. In yet another initiative aimed at upgrading Lankan rubber manufacturing skills, the Ministry is now planning to sponsor another batch of students for the Graduateship Program of Plastic and Rubber Institute of Sri Lanka at a Rs 3.7 million support fund quantum.
Locally harvested rubber is heavily used in domestic manufacturing in Sri Lankaโ totalling to around $195 million of raw rubber annually.
Leader of All Ceylon Makkal Congress